by Bobby Warren
I played 29 games a total of 39 times and recorded playing five expansions a total of eight times. I played 10 of the games and three of the expansions in March. Three of the games were new to me.I played some non-league DreadBall games this month. On the other hand, I didn't play any Warmachine or Hordes. We were going to play one day, but I left my troop cards at home.
Times Played:3
Last Month Played: 9/12
My Rating: 8
Expansion Played:Leaders for one of the games.
Steve hadn't played so we taught him the game without an expansion. After the first game we played with Leaders. Later in the month we played again without the expansion.
I picked up the Wonder Pack this month and they will be mixed in with any game I play using my set from now on.
Times Played:2
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 8
The first time was with Michael and Alex. I think this might be the first game I've played where everyone took at least one Begging card. None of us did particularly well.
The following weekend the three of us played again, this time with Ben joining us. I had some sheep synergy going because of a couple of my occupations, but felt I was doing poorly all game. In the end, it was a better game than I thought it was while it was going on.
I wanted to try the The Legen*dairy Forest-Deck, but Ben had only played once before and I didn't want to spring that chaos on him. Maybe next time?
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 5
The treasure cards which were added in this expansion just make it more fiddly than it needs to be. I think the game may be ready to jump the shark as far as adding more game-play wrinkles.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 10
Expansions Played:Traders & Builders.
Alex had not played this before. Really? I understand someone not playing 7 Wonders before, but Carcassonne? During the game, Steve learned that you don't get into a farm war with me. I'll share a farm, but if you try taking control from me I will defend it and attack your other scoring features. :angry
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 9/11
My Rating: 6
Alex bought and stickered it so he, Michael, and I played it.
I still think it is okay and something I don't need to buy. It would be better for me if the boards were a little larger and the levels took some more maneuvering. As it is, the rooms tend to end quickly.
Alex and Michael also are obviously less adept at flicking games, not having the many Crokinole games under their belt as I have. They had several whiffs and near flicks and weren't as accurate as I was, though I know if we played it fairly regularly my ham-fisted hands would soon become the disadvantage. :)
Michael and I beat Alex who was the evil sorcerer. Special props to our invisible thief named MaryJo.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 4/11
My Rating: 6
Silly Earthlings think they won. Maybe for now.
Times Played:2
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 7
This was a quick two-player game while we were waiting for others to arrive on a Saturday.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 1/13
My Rating: 9
Juno Beach, June 6, 1944.
We found a tank. It must have been well hidden.
It worked. Bonus!
We kicked some Nazi butt.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 6
U - G - L - Y, it ain't got no alibi, it's ugly! Hey, hey! It's ugly!
You might think that an experienced company would produce a game which was at least visually neutral? Not these guys! Ugly browns permeate the design and the text on the battlefields is difficult to read unless you are holding them in your hand. The card suits/colors are hard to see because of the deep brown cast that is on them on the battlefields. A great game might be able to get past horrid graphic design. This isn't a great game. It is okay.
Much like the game it is based on blatantly ripped off Pandemic and added pointless randomness (and is inferior), this one is a Schotten-Totten/Battleline rip off and is also inferior, but at least this game is playable.
Times Played:2
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 9
Since some nimrod (that would be me) forgot the troop cards for his Warmachine army, Alex and I played the first game in our open and non-scheduled "E" league. I decided to play my Iron Asteroid Miners (Forge Father) against Alex's R.O.U.S. "E" team (Veer-myn). I wanted to play the Squeak Squad, but didn't want to deal with two Veer-myn teams with their annoying poses on the board at the same time.
The Miners were relatively inept, never getting the ball past the midfield zone while the rats made several scoring attempts, only scoring once which was enough for the 4-0 win.
The "E" league is where we will try new rules and tweaks out. Since I just received the Season 2 rulebook a few days before, we didn't use any of the new rules. We did, however, use the 50-50 death rule which was in place. What we do is roll a die for each "killed" player at the end of the game. On a 4+ the player survives. On a 1-3 the player is dead and can be revived or sold for body parts per the rules.
We had two deaths. One of the Veer-myn guards was taken out of the game, but made the revival roll. The Miner striker, Silas Deepshaft, was not so fortunate and what was left of his organs were sold off to hire his replacement. A rising star in the "E" league named Zachariah Quicksilver. Maybe he can actually score a goal the next time they play?
A few weeks later Alex, Ben, Michael and I each played a game. This time I used the Squeak Squad against Michael's Forge Fathers, the BreakYourBack Mountaineers, and it was a score-a-thon! Defense was something other people played as we had six or eight four-point scores during the game, with the Veer-myn and Forge Fathers trading goals for much of the game. In the end, the rats won when Gotnal Edgemaker, a Mountaineer striker, was tripped up on the last play of the game running to try a winning score.
There was only one player knocked out of the game in our match and he survived.
I should be getting the second batch of teams this month and am looking forward to adding them to the games.
Times Played:2
Last Month Played: 2/13
My Rating: 8
Ithaqua came a callin' in Arkham and Gloria Goldberg, Amanda Sharpe, and Kate Winthrop were on hand to stop the dark antecessor of winter from freezing the Earth. It was not meant for Gloria to see the victory that would be attained, but her mantle was carried on by Jenny Barnes and with Amanda and Kate, Ithaqua's gloomy plans were thawed as he was sent back to the polar nether regions whence he came.
By now, you'd think the Not-So-Great Old Ones would have learned that Arkham is not to be messed with. But they still show their faces as Yog-Sothoth did. This time it was up to Mandy and Joe to stop his plans. Joe couldn't handle the thought that the Yog was so stupid to try again and had to be carted off to the asylum for some rehab. In the meantime, Jenny joined the fun and Yog was sent packing with not even a bumper sticker for his troubles.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 2/13
My Rating: 5
I arrived right after they had started playing this, so I came into a bad situation which only got worse. This is a hard game to beat and I am not 100% sure that the players even have a chance in most games.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 2/13
My Rating: 7
We played with the correct rules this time and it is a much better game that way, though I really ended up in far last place instead of winning, so maybe the game just sucks as written? :)
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 1/13
My Rating: 7
Mike managed to get two of his markers to the top and collect enough stones to max out his points with them. His third marker was stuck in the pink row and he avoided playing his fourth marker. I managed to max out a couple of rows and finish the game by getting my third marker over the end-game line. I didn't have a maximum number of stones so I scored less on those, however I managed to pull out the one-point win because my fourth marker also scored positive points.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 8
Expansions Played:Power Up! for all the plays.
A three-player game that ended quite quickly.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 8/03
My Rating: 4
Wow, it had been almost 10 years since I played this. It's one of Michael's games which he brings once in a while and I know he's played it at least a couple of times in the past decade. I guess I just wasn't one of the players.
Not that I mind too much. The years have only strengthened my objections of the design. First up is the horrible graphic design. This was an early FFG board game production and they had not refined their style. The colors are very bright primary colors, while the art on the tiles is busy and ugly. The game is an eye sore as it is being played.
It is also not one of Reiner Knizia's better designs. Knizia's Samurai: The Card Game pulls off using cards to surround locations much better than this game did. I recall feeling that getting a lead made it hard for others to come back, and it happened again. There were times when Alex might have hurt me depending on how he played, but it would have ended up helping Michael and not himself, so he played to win. I came away with an easy victory in the game hope I don't play it again, or hope it is at least another decade before I do.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 1/13
My Rating: 6
Michael went a-piratin' at the beginning and ended up with the win. If I had thought about my last turn, I would have won, but I took a port action first instead of heading out and looking for the merchant ship in the sea, then doing the port action. Stupid me.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 8
In our first game, I scored well over 100 points on the first hand and then held on to a victory at the end. Mike got his revenge in the second game because I was constantly drawing gavel cards, and not necessarily the one I needed at the time. When I win it is skill, when I lose it is because of bad card draws. Simple, eh? :)
Times Played:3
Last Month Played: 5/12
My Rating: 8
Expansion Played:On the Brink at all times.
Note: I found out this month that Z-man has decided to screw over those who supported the game since it came out by changing the card backs on the new edition and making the upcoming expansion incompatible with original version.
Alex had never played this! Michael and I taught it to him and he quickly learned how fortunes can turn. We were doing fairly well with a couple of diseases cured and no outbreaks had happened. However, we had a pair of adjacent cities maxed out and ready to outbreak. To make it more challenging, the virulent strain outbreaks caused the track to advance two spaces instead of one. Alex moved in to treat the adjacent cities but drew an infection card. After the shuffle, he infected both of the cities he cleared out. Just in time, or was it?
You see, when the deck was set up the infection cards ended up being close together at this point, and when Michael took his turn another infection happened! That meant that both Tehran and Baghdad exploded twice, which would be four outbreaks in most cases. But since the Slippery Slope nature of the virulent strain doubled the effective severity of the outbreaks, that meant there were eight which meant the world was destroyed by a deadly pandemic.
Luckily, we were able to play again and win the second game. :)
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 8
I was dominating the monuments, but a disaster took away some of my dominance in one of the columns and Mike was able to snake into it. The point difference was enough to give Mike the close win.
Stupid disasters…
Times Played:2
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 6
We played two five-player games. In the first game I was a good guy and we won, keeping my streak alive. In the second, Kevin got lucky (much like I did the last time we played) and pegged nothing but good guys when he picked. Basically, it shows the flaw with fewer players. I suspect it is best with more players so the artificial paranoia ratchets up.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 4
Inferior to The Resistance. It adds levels of complexity by adding too many roles. It might be better with more players, but I think I would still prefer to play the original.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 7/12
My Rating: 8
Just a quick three-player game with Michael and Alex. It started off slow for me, but I got my engine churning and ended up with the win.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 12/12
My Rating: 8
When I needed duplicate cards, I couldn't get them. When I needed a spread of cards, I had duplicates.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 7
Again, Jerry and I took on Mike's evil denizens and once again Mike defeated us with Starfire and Kobolds.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 6/12
My Rating: 9
Jerry hadn't played, so we played with the suggested set-up from the rules.
Times Played:2
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 8
Expansions Played:Caverns of Bane for both games.
Michael and Alex were having fun with the third level Disowned, doing their best to use its ability. While they were busy with that little trick, I was buying up the Charm of Venery (2VP each) and was still able to hold my own in the dungeon and came away with a fairly easy win.
The second time we played it was more of a standard game and was close at the end.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 10/12
My Rating: 7
We played with five players and it just isn't as interesting without the neutral color mucking up people's plans.
Times Played:1
Last Month Played: 3/13
My Rating: 8
The first was a painful, for me, game with three players. Where did my vaunted luck go? I think Michael sucked it off with some New Orleans voodoo!
It obviously was some sorcery by the tricksy and false Michael, because I came back and raced to an easy victory over Mike and Hilary later in the month. I hope I broke Michael's evil spell. :)